FRASER Forster made his second appearance for the Saints under-23s during their 2-1 defeat to Reading.

The goalkeeper, who hasn’t played a match for the first team since December 2017, featured for Radhi Jaidi’s side in order to gain some valuable minutes on the pitch.

Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl made it clear that Forster wasn’t going to be a part of his goalkeeping plans and that if he wanted to play football it would have to be for the U23s.

It’s been made clear to him in the previous two transfer windows that he would be able to leave the club after falling down the pecking order.

Since being dropped following the Boxing Day defeat to Tottenham in 2017, Alex McCarthy took his spot and established himself as the number one.

Angus Gunn was then bought in the summer, which sent Forster further away from the first team picture.

Jaidi’s U23s took the lead against Reading through Tyreke Johnson.

Johnson, who made his senior debut against Arsenal back in December, bundled the ball into the back of the net from Kayne

Ramsay’s cross in the 55th minute of the Premier League 2 clash.

However, Reading were back in the game when Ramsay gave away a penalty for a foul on Josh Barrett.

Tyler Frost stepped up to take the spot-kick and sent Forster the wrong way.

The visitors were in the lead 10 minutes later courtesy of an Oli Pendlebury goal and they managed to hold on to inflict Saints' first defeat of 2019.

Although he was upset with the loss, Jaidi pointed out that it was 'individual mistakes' that were the cause of his side's downfall, as opposed to a lack of effort.

Jaidi said: “Of course I’m disappointed. When you lose it’s disappointing.

“But we always need to remember that with the younger boys, there’s areas that always need to develop. 

“We’re trying to get the right mix, so they’re at a level where they can compete. I thought today the first half was tremendous, we pressed them high and caused a lot of problems.

“We put a lot of effort in, and the goal came. Individual mistakes hurt us in the end - both the penalty and the second goal.

“We’ve had a great run of wins, and now we’ve had a loss along the way. Now the most important thing is we keep our feet on the ground and are always searching for ways to improve.”